


Sunder

by Vhaenya



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 22:03:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5222621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vhaenya/pseuds/Vhaenya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Falling through a mountain and into a whole new world is something that only seems to happen in day dreams. However, for young Frisk, this is all very real. Not only that, but there something that seems to follow Frisk. Something that can bring great destruction to Home. Only Flowey knows how to harness Frisk's curse and Flowey only wanting the power for itself to gain access to the human's world, plays Frisk like a puppet to gain what Flowey truly wants. Revenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Start of a Legend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A young human child named Frisk finds themselves in a strange new world and they must quickly learn who to make friends with. Being an amiable and trusting child, despite their cruel upbringings, they form a good friendship with a sinister flower who has darker motives for the human. It's plan is quite simple, to awaken Chara and break down the barrier to exterminate all humans.

The small child stands up and rubs their hands together for warmth. A bitter winter breeze bites through their thin sweater and the child wipes a tear away from their face. They contemplate about their life and if they really want to carry out on this. Sure, their home life is a living nightmare; filled with endless terror and hungry, sleepless nights; but, is this something that they can go through with?

At school, they heard whispers about if you go to a certain mountain, you'll never be heard from again. Of course at that time, the child barely thought about coming here. Just a small fantasy to keep them from facing the harsh reality of their miserable, yet young life. Last night, however, was the last straw. They finally grew tired of being shoved around, yelled at and being stomped into the ground like a cigarette butt.

Such dark thoughts swirled around their head and as anger swelled up in their small chest they clenched their fists tightly. They never asked for any of this. They try so hard to be good and obedient for their parents. When they were younger, they looked up to their parents so much. Nothing could compete with the greatness of dear mother and father. They never meant to hit their child, mother promised, "It was just a mistake, sweetie, you know we would never hurt you. We love you. Look, dad is going to buy you some ice cream. Please stop crying." As the child grew up, they saw through their parents' honey dipped lies and fake smiles. They truly knew what happened behind shut doors, something that they promised over and over to both mother and father that they would never tell to any one else.

"I can't do this." The child whimpers out loud as they stare down the dark hole of the mountain. They wipe away another tear and sit down near the hole and cry into their hands. Even at something like this, they're still a failure, just like what father always said.

The setting sun finally disappears over the horizon and the air grows colder by the second. The sweet child shivers and closes their eyes for a moment. They're so tired, the trek up the mountain itself was a great feat for someone so young. As the stars begin to twinkle in the sky, the child's beaten and exhausted body starts to give out.

The child stares up at the sky as they lose feeling in their limbs and they frown. This is not what they wanted, they begin to ponder about their actions. They could have changed things, they didn't have to use this as a solution. This was a mistake. It's too late to turn back though, there's no way they could make it back down the mountain and to somewhere warm. There was just no chance in that happening.

As the child's eyes grow more and more heavy, they begin to panic more. They want to go home. Not to mother and father, but to a friend's house perhaps. They never really thought about any place being a home, they just want to escape this. They are so young, with what is supposed to be a long life ahead of them.

They close their eyes and let out a sigh, they suppose that everyone fears death. Some are taken peacefully, some are taken in the most horrendous ways. For this young child though, they fight off the inevitable with waning strength. They're scared of what's beyond their own life.

"This all must be a dream," the child mutters to no one in particular, "It has to be." They grit their teeth, they don't want to die. They truly never wanted to die, they just wanted an escape.

 

Their eyes open and they're in a small and dark room. They let out a sigh of relief, it was all just a dream. There was no way that they would have actually had the gall to climb the mountain. They're too much of a coward, hiding from everything. A coward and a fool.

They sit up and fear rises in their throat. This is not their room. They are laying in a bed of golden flowers, after letting their eyes adjust to the dim light, they note that they must be in some sort of cave. At one side of the small cave is an opening and the child makes their way to the opening.

After a long walk down an all too silent corridor, they tentatively step into a large room. The only noise is the rapid beat of their heart and their shallow, labored breaths. They were never a very active child but a simple walk like this should not have left them gasping for air. The child rests a small and clammy hand against the cool cave wall and they stare at the being in the middle of the room which happens to be staring right back at them with a peculiar look. Surely this must be a dream. There's no way that a flower with an odd little grin on its face can be real. Its golden petals glow slightly, as if pleased with the current events and it bobs slightly, the sound of its leaves rustling as it stretches its steam to get a closer look at the child invading its home.

"I never thought to see the likes of you, gosh, you took quite a beating; haven't you," Its syrupy sweet voice echoes off the walls, "Do you know where you are?" When met with silence, the flower's grin wanes and the light in its eyes disappears for only a moment.

"I suppose I can't blame you, you've been asleep for a while now. I was starting to get worried. Well, you're in the Ruins. I'm sure you just need to wake up a little bit more and you'll begin to remember this place and hopefully other things. My name is Flowey, Flowey the Flower. You, uh, probably don't remember me. Do you, pal?" The child shakes their head and Flowey lets out a sigh. Of course they wouldn't remember anything, after all, it's been such a long time.

"That's fine, I know all of this seems like it's all new to you and I'll give you some time to remember everything. Do you at least know your name?" The child's brow furrows in concentration. Their name, what is their name? Why can't they remember something as simple as their name? They recall that Flowey said they've been asleep for some time, but how long does "some time" mean? They weren't feeling particularly hungry so it couldn't have been all that long.

A sudden name pops into their head and they let out a shy smile, "Frisk, my name is Frisk." They are surprised by how gravely their voice is and only then realizes how parched they are.

Flowey studies the small human and a slight frown appears. Frisk? Surely they must be confused. Flowey never even heard of that name before, how did they come up with such a curious name? Flowey decided to play along with their game. It's best not to confuse the child too much.

"Well, hello Frisk. I'm sure that you want to go back home. I'll be happy to inform you that I can help you." At one point, Flowey might have felt some remorse for spinning lies. However, now, they are immune to such feelings. Only now, a boiling rage fuels its existence. Nothing can quench it except for its long awaited freedom.

Flowey pats the ground next to it, inviting the dirty child over. Frisk complies and sits down next to the flower, bringing their knees up to their chest and rests their arms over their knees. Frisk studies the flower with a silent fascination. Flowey bends towards Frisk and gives them its sweetest and biggest smile.

"Do you want to know how to get out of here?" The child nods excitedly, Flowey chuckles at Frisk's eagerness.

"I'm glad that you want to get out of here, you're such a good child." Frisk hangs on to every word with a growing smile, "Before I tell you, you have to promise me that you'll do exactly what I tell you."

"I promise!"

"That's wonderful, I'm so happy! You are such a good friend." Flowey notes Frisk's blush and it gives them a sly grin, "I mean, we are friends; right?" Something about this flower gives Frisk a warm feeling. Like they've known each other for ages. They feel like they can trust this smiling flower.

"Of course. I always wanted to be friends with a flower."

"Heh, well, then I'm happy and you should be too. Say, I bet we can even help each other out. I can help you through this place and in turn, you can take me with you when you leave. How does that sound Frisk? We can be friends forever. You can take me everywhere you go when you return to the surface. We'll be best friends." Frisk once more nods, their bedraggled brown hair bounces and falls over their eyes.

"Boy, am I so relieved to have such a good friend! Okay, since you made that promise to me, I'm happy to tell you how to leave now. This first part is easy! You just have to wait. Soon, there will be a sweet old lady that comes through here. I want you to go with her, she'll lead you out of here and you'll be one step closer to leaving!" Frisk's smile falls and they cock their head to their left.

"You won't be coming with?"

"That's so sweet of you to be so worried about little old me. For this part, I won't be coming with you. I'll be close by though, I promise. I have some things to take care of first, I'll catch up to you two when she takes you to the door. Now, before I go, I have a little present for you. Since you are being so good; I decided to give this to you. Close your eyes and hold out your hands and I'll give you a big surprise!" Frisk lets out an excited squeal and quickly shuts their eyes and thrusts their hands out.

Flowey sets a rusty dagger gingerly on their hands, noting the sickly grey tint of their palms, "Okay, Frisk, you can open your eyes." Frisk opens their eyes and gazes at the dagger with confusion and looks back at Flowey with a scared look.

"Why do I need this Flowey?" Flowey's face turns crestfallen and they look down at the ground, seemingly wilting.

"I can't be around all the time, Frisk. I'm not going to lie to you, this is going to be a dangerous time for you. There are monsters out there who will gladly kill you. I'm not sure that you're aware of this, but down here, it's kill or be killed. You need that if you want to leave here alive," Flowey begins to sink into the ground, "Make sure to hide that and keep it close to you at all times. The lady will be here soon. Stick with her, she knows what to do. Remember what I said."

"No! Please don't leave me! I'm scared." Frisk barks out as they grip the dagger close to their chest. Flowey turns back to Frisk and gives them a reassuring smile.  
"Just listen to what I said, you'll be safe. Oh, before I do leave though, I have one more thing to say. Out there, there is someone that you cannot trust. Someone that you must stay away from at all times. He isn't good, he's evil and he'll try to eat your soul and use your skin for his own. Watch out for a skeleton. The one in the blue jacket." Tears fall freely from Frisk's eyes and they rub the sleeve of their sweater against their nose.

"I-I don't want to die!"

"Then kill him as soon as you can. I have to go now." Frisk scrambles towards Flowey as Flowey disappears into the ground. It's best to leave for now. Make fear strike down into the child. Flowey thinks as it moves underground. It doesn't know why the child doesn't remember who they are but it supposes that it doesn't matter for the time being. As long as that damn skeleton doesn't interfere. He's given Flowey more than a hard time and the sooner the kid kills him, the better for Flowey. Perhaps this timeline is the one.

 

"I don't want to kill anyone though." They blubber to the ground where their friend was just a moment ago. Frisk sobs as they pack away the knife. They just want to go home, they don't want to kill anything but they don't want to be killed either. They'll wait here like what Flowey said. After all, Flowey said that they were friends. Friends don't let each other be in danger, right?

"Oh, my goodness, my sweet child. How long have you been down here?" A concerned voice startles Frisk and they look up. Blurred by their tears, they see a tall, white bipedal goat looking monster staring down at them with soft brown eyes. She extends a soft, furry hand to Frisk, "You must be so scared. Fear not anymore, sweet one. I'm here for you." This must be the lady that Flowey was talking about, trusting Flowey's word. Frisk takes the gentle monster's hand and stands up. The monster studies Frisk for a moment as they stand up, something is not quite right with this child. There is something to their ragged body that she does not like. Something familiar. Despite her better judgment to leave the child here and abscond quickly out of this part of the ruins. She picks up the child and is surprised by how light this one is. Most humans that fall are heavier than this human, not to mention that they also have some sort of life in their eyes. This child, however, has dull and dead eyes.

"What is your name, sweet one?"

"Frisk." As the monster makes her way through the ruins, with the child in her arms, she smiles down at them.

"That's such a lovely name. My name is Toriel, you're safe now. Worry not, we're almost home." As Toriel makes one final turn, Frisk sees a cozy cottage nestled between two walls, "This will be your new home now."

She sets Frisk down and Frisk stares up at the cottage in amazement, they turn to Toriel and wraps their arms around Toriel's legs, giving out a muffled thanks. Toriel smiles and suppresses the shudder that passes through her body as Frisk hugs her. The strange child doesn't seem to give out body heat and Toriel ponders if it was a good idea to let this creature into her home.

Toriel leads Frisk into her home and guides them into a room, "Here is your room, I hope you like it. I always keep it clean in case a human falls from the mountain." Being in a smaller space with Frisk, Toriel smells something strange emitting from the child. They are dirty, perhaps they just haven't had a good shower in a while; or perhaps whatever this is, is not even human.

Frisk runs into the room and looks around with an elated grin and stares back at Toriel with wide, innocent eyes.

"Thank you!" Toriel's eyes soften as her hand rests on the doorknob.

"You are welcome, young one, you must be very tired. Before you go to sleep, maybe you would like a nice, hot bath and some clean clothes?" Without waiting for an answer, she motions Frisk to follow her. They reach the bathroom and Toriel starts the bath water.

"Would you like a bubble bath?" Frisk nods and gives Toriel a goofy grin, one of their upper front teeth is missing. She reaches over and pours some liquid into the bath. Instantly bubbles start appearing. Frisk dips their hand in and begins to play with the bubbles. Toriel stands up after turning the bath water off.

"I'll be back with some clean clothes for you, okay?" After Toriel returns with a thick, woolen blue sweater and a matching set of blue shorts, she pauses at the door.

"By the way, do you like cinnamon or butterscotch more?" After a moment of contemplation, Frisk answers with cinnamon. Toriel nods thoughtfully and shuts the door gently behind her.

Frisk stands before the sink's mirror and stares into their face. After such a long day, they're glad to see that it's still them. Or so they hope, they understand that monsters probably don't see humans very often and don't know how to act around them. That, however, does not mean that Frisk doesn't see the way how both Flowey and Toriel have been giving them strange looks when they thought Frisk wasn't looking. Nor the way that Toriel seems to shy away from Frisk.

They continue to stare at their reflection and for a moment, something shimmers. Frisk takes a step back and lets out a surprised gasp. For a moment, they thought they saw someone behind them. It must be part of their imagination, it has to be. Frisk peels off their grimy clothing, folding their own clothing and setting it on the toilet seat, gently they put their little backpack on top of their folded clothes. Flowey said to keep the knife safe so they're not about to disappoint Flowey by letting their backpack that holds the knife leave their sight. They don't think that Toriel would take kindly to them having a knife.

Frisk jumps into the tub and sighs with happiness, the hot water feels so nice against their cool skin and they begin to scrub away at the dirt. Humming softly to themselves, they play quietly in the bathtub for some time.

 

As Toriel tucks Frisk into bed, she gives the child a gentle kiss on their forehead. After the bath, the child has seemed to gain more color, though, there's still a strange smell to them. Toriel takes out a book and asks if they would like to be read to, Frisk smiles and nods. After reading Peek-A-Boo with Fluffy Bunny, Toriel takes her leave. She keeps the door open a sliver so that the soft light of the hallway comforts the small child.

As Frisk closes their eyes, they hear something that sounds like talking but it's so faint, they can't pick up on any words. It's probably just Toriel, maybe she's on the phone with someone.

Frisk strains their ears to listen to the one sided conversation when a sudden pain erupts in Frisk's head, shooting up from bed, they bring their hands to their temples and squeeze their eyes shut. They've only felt this pain a few times before when they've suffered a few broken bones at the hands of their parents.

Frisk lets out a whimper and the talking grows louder, they realize that the talking cannot be Toriel because the voice that Frisk hears is actually a child. The voice continues to grow louder until it's just a constant screaming, the only word that Frisk can make out from the screaming is kill over and over again. Frisk lets out a scream of their own as they feel like their head is being split open.

Toriel runs back into the room and sees Frisk gripping their head with such force that their knuckles are white. Toriel rushes over to the child and pick them up and holds them against her chest. Wiping the hair and tears away from their face, she rocks back and forth gently as Frisk begins to calm down. Their headache disappears as suddenly as it appeared and the only thing left is the fear.

"My sweet child, what has happened?" Toriel's soft voice soothes Frisk further and they begin to relax, burying their face into Toriel's chest Frisk only answers in a series of incoherent and muffled words.

"It was only a nightmare, my sweet child. Go back to sleep, I'll be right here with you." Frisk climbs back into bed and holds out a small hand, Toriel takes it and smiles down at the child. They give a slight and uncertain smile back but their eyes grow heavy again and soon they are fast asleep.

Toriel examines them as they sleep. This certainly cannot be like the other humans that she's come into contact with. There's something so off but so familiar with Frisk. She can't quite place her finger on why this small child is giving them such an odd feeling but every time Toriel lays eyes on Frisk, a lump works its way up to her throat and the fur on her back rises ever so slightly.

Frisk's grip on Toriel's hand loosens and falls away, hitting the mattress with a soft thump and a serene smile passes on Frisk's slightly chapped lips. Whatever caused them to freak out earlier, is gone. Hopefully for good, Toriel knows however, this is only the start of this child's new life in Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it certainly has been a long time since I've been on here. I want to apologize, everything has just been pretty hectic and for the longest time it felt like I couldn't pull my life together. Anyway, I should have some more free time with the new job that I picked up so I'll be able to get back to writing. It does feel nice to be writing again. Well, I hope that you like this story, I'm pretty excited about this story and I have a lot of things in store for this one. I'm aiming to release a new chapter of this story every Monday. That should give me more than enough time to stop being so lazy and actually do something with my life. Well, until then, see you guys in the next chapter!


	2. The Birth of a Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The quest continues as Frisk finds themselves living peacefully with their new adoptive mother, Toriel. That is, until Flowey grows impatient and decides to take matters into his own hands to spend up the awakening. It ultimately works and now with the door guarding the rest of Home is now unlocked, leaving Frisk free to do as they wish.

Over the next following weeks, Frisk quickly falls into a schedule while living with Toriel. They adore the peaceful lifestyle. Every morning they awake to the smell of breakfast and brewing coffee. Sometimes Frisk hides toast in their sweater to feed the local Froggits and Whismun. With a knowing smile, Toriel always makes sure to make extra toast for Frisk's new found friends.

During the afternoon, Toriel prepares some lessons whilst Frisk plays outside with their friends under the motherly gaze of Toriel. Each day, Toriel sees that Frisk is becoming more quiet. Their focus is slipping during their lessons and they are starting to push away their friends. Instead of running around the front lawn screaming happily, they now sit under the dying tree, poking around at the ground with a stick.

The evenings are usually free, save for when it's cleaning time after supper. Frisk runs from room to room in their little apron and as they dust, Toriel hums quietly as she vacuums. Then Frisk is off to bed, read a story and with a kiss to their forehead and a hug goodnight, Frisk's day comes to a close.

Tonight, Toriel stands on the other side of Frisk's bedroom door with a hand to her mouth. She listens to Frisk crying and guilt fills her, this is not Frisk's home. No matter how comfortable she tries to make it for them, it's no way for a human to live. She doesn't want to let Frisk go though, she's been alone for so long but she knows that one day, sooner or later Frisk will leave.

Toriel walks down the long and dark underground corridor and reaches a colossal door. She stares up at it with sad eyes and rests her hand on it with a heavy conscience. A bittersweet smile appears when she hears a certain, muffled, suave voice from the other side of the door.

"Heya, so I feel bad for a good friend of mine."

"Why's that?"

"Well, her bakery burned down last night. Now her business is toast." Toriel lets out a soft chuckle before sitting down, her head resting against the door. She ponders for a moment before she speaks.

"Do you know where average things are made?"

"Where?"

"In the satisfactory." Toriel hears a chortle from the deep voice that, after sharing many puns with over the course of a few years, she considers her best friend. Despite actually meeting them face to face and not even knowing their name. Strange to think, that they've spent so much time sharing any kind of jokes, good or bad. Neither of them has actually bothered asking for each other's name, perhaps it's better this way though. Keeps from ruining what they have.

"Heh, that was a good one. I relish the fact that you mustard the strength to ketchup with me." Toriel's dark thoughts keep her from laughing and she says nothing.

"Aww, come on. I've been waiting to use that one and nothing? What's up?"

"If a human ever comes through this door. . . Could you please, please promise me something? Watch over them and protect them, will you not?"

"Whoa, that was the one thing I was not expectin' to hear. This outta have a good punchline."

"No, I am being serious. I need to make sure that you make this promise to me." The voice is quiet for so long, Toriel begins to worry that perhaps they have left her.

"Okay, I promise." Tears threaten to fall from Toriel's eyes and more than ever she wishes to open the door and cry into the stranger on the other side. How she longs for physical comfort from her friend.

"Thank you so much."

"Yeah, don't mention it. I take it that you won't tell me what's going on over there wontcha?"

"Now is not the time." As much as she wants to tell this voice everything, she knows that she can't.

"I figured. Look, uh, I don't know how things are like on your side, but y'know that you can always tell me if anything is eatin' you up."

"I know." They both stay quiet for a while before the voice speaks again, "Welp, it's getting late and you know how my bro gets if I'm not home in time to read him a bedtime story. Same time tomorrow?" Toriel nods, she knows how her friend's brother is. When they're not telling each other jokes, he likes talking about his brother. From what Toriel can tell, his brother is the only family he has.

"Yes, of course. I don't want him to be mad at you. Same time tomorrow sounds lovely."

"Heh, he's always mad at me about something. It's alright though, it's just his way of taking care of me. He's a good brother. Make sure to bring your A-game tomorrow. G'night."

"Good night." She listens as the foot steps grow lighter and she lets out a sigh. She continues to sit on the cold floor, feeling the draft from the outside world.

 

Frisk stares up at the rafters with heavy eyes. Night after night of barely any sleep, Frisk becomes more and more withdrawn and sullen. Shambling through the cottage like a corpse. It's at this time that Flowey starts to visit Frisk. With each passing night, Flowey starts to see the cold, dead eyes and their sullen tone and Flowey can't help but smile, he knows however, to continue to play their game; to insure that Frisk falls right into his plan.

"Howdy Frisk. Gee, you don't look very good. Mind letting your best friend know what's wrong?" As if he doesn't already know. They are finally waking up. Flowey's long wait is about to come to an end.

"I don't know. I feel like there's something wrong with me. I keep having these really bad nightmares. Nightmares of me. . . killing my friends or Toriel. The. . . the worst thing about it, in my nightmares I actually feel good about it. Like I want to do it. In real life. What do I do Flowey?" Flowey can not be any more pleased.

"I was worried that this might happen." He rubs a leaf over one of his bottom petals and pretends to look perplexed. Frisk leans in with wide and tearful eyes.

"What? You know what's wrong with me?"

"Hmmm, I think I might know."

"Please tell me Flowey!" Flowey turns away for a moment before looking back at Frisk with mournful eyes.

"Since we're best friends, I'll tel you all that I know because I want to help you. You see, there's something in the air here. Humans can't stay in Underground for long. It drives them mad. Sometimes, humans that are weak can even die here. That's why I told you that you have to get out of here." Tears fall freely from Frisk's eyes as they wrap their arms tightly around their body.

"I don't want to die! Flowey, you have to help me. Please!"

"Frisk, it will be okay. As long as you do exactly what I say. There will be many dangers. You have to exit the Ruins. I know that, that might sound hard to do since you made some good friends here. But, you have to trust me that if you stay here, only bad things will happen. Once those bad things happen, there will be no stopping it and it will consume you." Flowey watches Frisk as they grip their pillow.

"I don't know how to leave here! I haven't seen any doors to leave here!"

"Oh Frisk, no need to worry about that, buddy. Leave that up to me. I have to go now. Meet me outside tomorrow night." Frisk watches as Flowey disappears and once again, Frisk is left alone with their thoughts.

They stare out of their window and into the dark sky. They don't miss much from the surface, but what they miss the most is when they look up at the night sky and see millions of twinkling stars. They miss the cool, night breeze and the soft chirping of the cicadas and crickets and the babbling of the brook near their home. They miss when it's summer out and they spend their nights outside, running around and catching the lightening bugs as they lazily fly around Frisk.

Here in the Underground, it's completely silent at night. Not even the Froggits who fill the day with their croaking are awake at this time. The only one who is awake now is Frisk, wishing more than anything at this time to be back up on the surface. Not only to escape from this silence but so they can feel better.

They trust in what Flowey said and worry overwhelms them. They don't want to hurt anyone, just the thought alone fills with with sadness. But, deep inside them, they feel an urge to hurt or even kill. This scares them more than anything, the urge is something that's alien. They hear thoughts that aren't theirs and Frisk can feel the thoughts getting louder. They worry that soon, these thoughts will overcome them and compel them to act out on what the thoughts whisper to them.

 

Frisk sits at the table and stares down at their dinner. It doesn't seem very appetizing to them, they push around their casserole. Toriel stands at the counter, pouring herself a cup of tea. The forbidding silence fills the room, each in their own train of thought. Frisk looks over at Toriel and their fist tightens around the fork. Stab her. They shake their head and put the fork down. When they look back at Toriel, they see that she's looking at them with a look they can't describe. Frisk nervously takes a sip from their glass of juice before tentatively speaking.

"Mom?" Toriel sits down at the chair opposite of Frisk and blows on her tea. She studies the small child across from her. The first month living with Toriel, the child seemed to bloom like a spring flower. However, now, they seem to be wilting. The light seems to leave their eyes and their still sickly looking skin has taken a turn for the worst.

"Yes, my dear child?" Frisk pushes their limp, brown hair away from their eyes and they play with the sleeves of their sweater.

"When can I leave?" The four words struck like an arrow through Toriel's heart and a lump rises in her throat as numbness spreads through her body. She's not ready to let Frisk go. She knows how dangerous it can be out there. She can't fail another human being, not after the previous six. She will not let this sick, dying child leave.

"Frisk, why do you want to leave here? You're safe here." For a brief second anger flares up in Frisk before they take in a deep breath.

"I want to go back." Their voice waivers and comes out as a whisper. Toriel stands up and stares down at the young child with a firm gaze.

"No, you cannot leave. You are too weak and I cannot watch over you if you are out there. Now, please, I have to go somewhere. Would you mind cleaning up the dishes for me?"

Toriel doesn't wait for a reaction, instead she makes her way downstairs and hurries to the door. She knows that she must destroy it, she will not let Frisk be hurt. As she stands before the door, a sly and soft voice rings out behind her.

"Howdy. I was hoping I'd run into you here."

 

Frisk stands outside underneath the tree, Flowey was supposed to be here a while ago. Frisk kicks at the ground with a huff of impatience.

After the talk with Toriel with them earlier, it put Frisk in a bad mood. Toriel dared to call Frisk weak, thought after dark thought filled Frisk's mind until they just felt like snapping into two. These thoughts scared them but they couldn't find a way to stop them. As they tried to find a way to stop their thoughts, Frisk felt something else in their mind with them. Something that shoved them aside and reigned control. Since then, this other being in their body has been standing motionless just staring down at the leaves that are scattered around the dead tree.

When Frisk is about head back inside, they see Flowey pop up from the ground. He looks a little bit beat up and he appears to be out of breath.

"Aw, did you think that lil old me wouldn't show up?" Frisk doesn't give Flowey any sort of answer but instead just stares at him with emotionless eyes. Flowey studies Frisk carefully, it seems that they have woken sooner than he had thought. Not that he's disappointed but he does admit to himself that the sight of Frisk right now does make him uneasy.

"Well, as I promised to you, my good friend. I will help you get out of here. Meet me downstairs." Flowey trails off as Frisk walks away from him and enters the house. He narrows his eyes at the shut door of the cottage and makes a note to himself that he must teach this a child a lesson later for walking off before he's done speaking. He disappears into the ground and reappears before the door in the basement and waits for Frisk to show up.

Flowey can hear the slow footsteps coming towards him, he can also hear something that's scrapping along the concrete wall and a small tune that Frisk is whistling. Flowey shakes it off and ignores their attempt to scare him. A few more moments of this and Flowey is gritting his teeth, Frisk is only getting louder and the familiar tune of their whistling won't leave his head. The sooner he gets them out of here, the better.

He sees Frisk round the corner and they walk up to him. The purple lighting of the corridor bathes them in a insipid perse color. As Frisk shuffles towards him, a wide smile spreads across their face and they stand before him with the knife that he gave them in their left hand. They still say nothing and just stare down at him until he gives them the key that he took from Toriel. They bend down and their cold hands graze against his leaf as they take the key.

"Here ya go, now you can leave this part and make your way through the Underground until you make it to the Palace! Don't worry about getting lost. I'll be helping you along the way. Just remember our promise from before. Watch out for the skeleton." Flowey goes back underground as Frisk lets out a laugh.

Once Flowey is gone, they look down at the key in their hands and examine the intricate design that adorns the key. They step up towards they immense door and slide the key into the hole. With a push, the door glides open and snow that whips around their dull hair greets them. They shut the door behind them and smile as they take a step into new territory.

 

A short, big boned skeleton rests against a tree, enjoying the quiet atmosphere. His brother really dug into him last night for being late to reading him a bed time story and was put to Roving Patrol. Not that he can complain, sometimes you just gotta stretch those aching bones. Today, however, is not one of those days. He wants nothing more than to sit on his sofa back at home and idly flip through the channels.

"Ahh, I'm gettin' too old for this." He pulls out a traveling sized ketchup bottle and unscrews the top and takes a swig before putting the top back on and sticks the bottle back into his hoodie. He cracks his stiff finger bones and looks up at the dark sky with a yawn. He still has another hour before he's supposed to make his round back to the station where his brother is at.

He figures that he has some time and maybe the mysterious voice on the other side of that door will be there early. After all, he doubts that there's really anything that would be too exciting on the other side. Maybe luck will be on his side and he can get out a few sick jokes before having to report in.

He begins to walk to the door, puffs of steam flows out of his mouth. He's always enjoyed the winter, just something about watching the snow fall and, as cheesy as it sounds, it's oddly romantic. Not that he really cares about something like romance, but sometimes him and his brother score a pretty great human film. It's a bit of a bad habit they both picked up, scrounging through the dump for a good human movie. While he enjoys the comedy movies, there's just something so cliché about their romance movies that he loves.

It seems to even snow up there and the humans seem to enjoy it in the movies, always finding love and stuff. One time, after watching a movie; his brother was so inspired by seeing the humans skate on ice, he dragged both of them to a pond to try skating. Turns out it's not as easy as the humans made it look and the results were disastrous. At least for his poor brother, turns out for himself, ice skating is just about the only physical sport that he's better at than his brother. To his brother's immense irritation.

As he's off in his little world, he trips over a pile of snow. He tries to catch his balance before plummeting headfirst into a snowdrift. He pulls himself up and dusts the snow off from himself and looks at the pile in the middle of the path. He hopes that it isn't some monster that kicked the bucket out here. Or, even worse, another one of those spiders. Most of them are pretty small and don't make it far from the door, but every once in a while a real big one gets out. He's not the biggest fan of spiders, something about them just gives him the hibbie jibbies.

He walks to the pile and pushes some of the snow away with his foot. A blue sweater catches his eye and he bends down and pushes more snow away. A small child lays huddled into a ball and he sits back.

"Well, I'll be damned." This is certainly something that he was not expecting to run into. The conversation with the voice echoes through his skull and he runs his hand along his smooth skull. That voice certainly knew that something was up. As much as he would like to go and interrogate the voice, he decides against that. He knows that humans can't be in the cold for very long without getting sick or dying. He takes off his hoodie and wraps it around the unconscious child. Picking them up, they feel oddly light. Though, how's he supposed to know how much a kid weighs? He's never seen one in real life.

"Okay kid, a promise is a promise. Let's get ya outta here."

 

He finishes tucking the kid in with the last blanket that he could find when the door blasts open, letting a freezing gust of air into the snug home.

"Figures I would find you here, lazy bones!" His brother's loud exclamation rattles in his skull and he turns to face his brother.

"Yo, shut the door." His brother complies and shakes the snow off from him.

"You had just one more patrol to do Sans! There's no need to be a quitter!" Sans shrugs and his permasmile grows wider.

"Ah, Pap, you know me," he motions Papyrus closer, "Plus, I found something that you might like." Papyrus rolls his empty eye sockets.

"Sans, if it is another stray rock that you have found. I will have you know that I, The Great Papyrus, will not be able to take care of any more rocks that you find. I will have you know that I am a man with a very busy schedule!" Papyrus strides over to his brother and looks down at the sleeping form and then back at Sans.

"Ah, why didn't you tell me that you had a date over Sans? Though I don't know why they are sleeping. Surely you're not that boring!"

"Bro, what? No, look again." Papyrus crosses his arms and stares at Sans.

"Sans, that is ungentlemanlike to stare at someone else's date." Sans shakes his head.

"Pap, this is a human." Papyrus's arms drop to his side and his jaw goes slack. He stares at human baffled and then back at Sans and then back at the human. He continues to do this to the amusement of Sans before Papyrus lets out a soft squeak.

"Oh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I decided that Sundays would be better for me to do new chapters because on Mondays, I'm working both of my jobs and have no time to do any sort of writing. So, besides that, where I live, we got tons of snow. It was crazy. My mom and I got stuck on our way to back to work to get my car and my groceries melted. Then we couldn't get my car so she told me that I would just have to spend the night with them and we went to pick up my sister but there were accidents everywhere and we got stuck on a hill. So, a normal car ride that would take about a half hour tops, turned out to take us three and a half hours. It was pretty great. I don't think I've seen anyone cry so much from frustration before. If it's been snowing where any of you guys are at, stay safe okay? Okay, see you guys in the next chapter! Have a good day or night.


	3. The Desolation of a Comic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Skelebros find Frisk and graciously take them into their cozy cottage. While Frisk is having an internal battle for dominance, Sans is having his own battle against his nightmares. With the strain of all the stress resting on his shoulders, he leaves. Seemingly around the same time that Frisk awakens.

Two skeletons stand around the sleeping child on their beat up sofa. They murmur softly between themselves in fear of waking Frisk.

"Sans, I must tell you; this human is not what I expected." Sans looks up at his brother, perhaps at one time he was irritated that his younger brother is over a foot taller than him. However now, he learned to accept the fact that he'll never be taller than 5'2".

"What do you mean bro? This is a Grade A human." Papyrus pokes the human gently with his glove and lets out a grunt.

"Yeah, but, this one only sleeps. Maybe it's defective?" Sans shakes his head and chuckles.

"Humans can't be in the cold for long, Paps. The kid probably is just sleeping off some human sickness." Deep down, Sans hopes that this human doesn't wake up. He's had his fair share of nightmares to come to the conclusion that any sort of contact with a human can only spell out bad times. A gleam appears in Papyrus' eye sockets and a wide smile on his face.

"Do you think the human requires some of Master Chef Papyrus' world famous spaghetti?"

"Heh, knock yourself out bro, maybe the squirt will be up by the time your spaghetti gets done." With that, Papyrus shoots to the kitchen to make spaghetti, leaving Sans alone with the sleeping form of Frisk. The lights in his eye sockets narrow at the child, he's still not sure if this is the child that he sees in his nightmares. With a heavy sigh, he sits down on the sofa near Frisk's feet and flicks on the television with a lazy flick of the wrist.

Despite whatever is being shown at this time, Sans' mind keeps wandering to the human in his home. Is he truly ready for this human? Is he ready to defend all that he loves? He likes to think so, after all, Papyrus and the rest of his friends have a bright future ahead of themselves and he won't hesitate to lay down his life in order to protect his friends and remaining family. Perhaps they might miss him for a bit, but deep inside, he knows that he's replaceable to them. Surely, they're only friends with him because he's Papyrus' elder brother.

Sans has always felt out of place in Snowdin, ever since they arrived so long ago. At first, he made friends with the locals with ease. Who can't fall for a charismatic smile and a well placed pun? However, after a few years, he began to feel more like a burden rather than a friend. Sans feels that at this point of time, it's more of a chore to keep up with appearances. After all, who'd want to hang out with someone like him? He knows that he's just a nobody.

Between the headaches that echo in his skull and the nightmares that come back every night, anything above laying in bed and moping in the dark sanctuary of his room is something that he's come to loathe. Everyday is a great struggle for him, he tries his hardest to hide the worst from his brother but he knows that, despite being naive, Papyrus isn't stupid and is the only one that can see through his mask. He can see the sympathetic looks Papyrus gives him when he thinks that Sans isn't looking. He always feels a twinge of embarrassment when his brother has to wake him up from his nightmares. How can he hope to protect his brother if he can't even keep the nightmares at bay? Sometimes, just sometimes, Sans wishes that he wasn't related to Papyrus so he could just leave.

He runs his hand over his face and looks down at his shaking hand. Each day he can feel himself getting weaker, even a short walk to Grillby's leaves him tired. Sans clenches his fist angrily and glares up at the television. At one point, when they were still new to Snowdin, he would receive offers to join the royal guard. If it wasn't for a much smaller and younger Papyrus, he might've taken the offer just for shits and giggles.

Now, he can't even look himself in the mirror without feeling some sort of contempt. He's glad that he's a skeleton, he'd rather not see how much weight he would have lost with what little appetite he has left. What has happened to him? How could he let his father's sacrifice be wasted on him? What would his father even say to him, seeing him as the mess he is these days?

Sans runs a bony finger across a singed part of the sofa chair when a clatter from the kitchen pulls him from his thoughts and he glances over to Frisk once more; no matter how weak his bones may get, he can still pack a punch and if push comes to shove, he will terminate this child. Promise or not.

 

Papyrus stands over the stove and hums a soft song from the television to himself. He's seen that familiar look on his dear brother's face many times and excused himself to the kitchen, knowing full well that he wants to be left alone. Or rather as alone as one can get with a species that one's own kind is at war with.

He lets out a sigh and leans against a counter, he knows that Sans is troubled with recent events but every time that he tries to have a heart to heart conversation with Sans, he just pushes him away with a soft chuckle and a joke. Papyrus can tell how desperate his brother is getting, with all these jokes, he's trying his hardest to stay happy, or at least keep the charade going. However, Papyrus sees Sans' smile fading at the edges and it worries him deeply.

Many nights, he listens to the soft crying and sniffles of his elder brother. Papyrus always makes sure to keep his door unlocked in case Sans wants to come and sleep in his bed instead. There's always that one night, once every blue moon where Papyrus will wake up to screaming and the house doused in blue flames. The latter, being much more frequent as of late. Papyrus knows that one day, the house will just be completely engulfed in flames and there will be no saving anything. They've been lucky so far with Papyrus being able to wake up Sans before the damage gets too bad physically. Mentally, Papyrus knows he's far too late to save his brother, who during the remainder of those particular nights will grip onto Papyrus' pajamas and mutter incoherently.

Papyrus stirs the spaghetti with a wooden spoon and stares intently into the pot. He desperately wishes that his brother will be able to get better soon. Seeing Sans go through this is almost as scary as having Sans die on him and the worst part is that there's nothing that Papyrus can do to help Sans. He curses himself silently, he's afraid to even do the daily training with him these days. For years, Sans' defense has slowly dropped until it's dropped to a measly one. Papyrus knows that with just one mistimed attack can put an early demise to Sans.

Sometimes he wishes that their father was still around, being a royal scientist, he would most likely know how to help. He doesn't remember much of their father and Sans doesn't like talking about it, save for those few nights where he comes home drunk from Grillby's. Then, only then, will Sans open up about their mysterious father. From the horrific stories Sans tells him, it really throws him in for a loop. All that he remembers is a smiling face beaming down at him and a song being sung in a very familiar language. A language only his brother seems to use when he's drunk.

Papyrus takes the pot off from the stove and drains the noodles, the steam sticks to his frontal bone. He wipes the steam off as he walks across the kitchen and grabs some plates, wishing that the human will wake up soon. Perhaps the human holds a solution to helping Sans, they have to. Humans must be very intelligent and surely they know the answers to many things.

 

Frisk's eyes dart back and forth under their eyelids as a small voice speaks from the deepest part of their mind. 'What are you doing?' They ignore the sweet voice. They worked so hard to get to where they are. Despite everything, getting to this point took all of their energy. They know that they must lock the voice away before it gets too brave and tries to take over. 'You can't do this.' This time the voice is louder and they let out a low hiss, they are too late and this pest is going to give them more of a fight than they bargained.

'You don't have to do this.' Oh, but they must. They must complete what they started. A soft white light fills the mind of the small eight year old and they start to shake uncontrollably as they let out a whimper. Sans takes his eyes from the television and stares down at the human with heed. A soft blue light pulses from his left eye socket as he cracks his knuckles. However, as soon as they started shaking, they are still once more. He watches as their breath becomes more normal and the blue hue dissipates.

"Oh, is the human finally up?" Papyrus peeks from the kitchen and stares at the human with excitement. He wants to talk to this human before Sans does. Papyrus wants a non-biased answer so he must be ready to swoop the human away once they awake.

"Nah, bro, just a false alarm. They must be dreaming." Papyrus takes a moment to study both of them before giving them both a curt nod and returns to the kitchen. Tonight, he will sleep out in the living room so he will be there once the human wakes up. He knows that they'll soon wake up, he can feel it in his bones.

 

"Yo, are you sure you want to stay out here and not in the comforts of your sweet bed?"

"Yes, you've watched them long enough and from now on, I, The Great Papyrus, will take the watch until this human awakes from their slumber." Sans shrugs with a sigh and starts to shuffle towards the stairs.

"Whatevs you say, Pap. You want me to get you your book?"

"Not tonight, for I am on watch duty and will not be distracted by fluffy bunnies!"

"Aiight, see ya two in the mornin' then." Sans closes his bedroom door, peeling off his socks, he throws them in the corner with the other dirty socks. He lets out a sigh and crawls into his bed and hugs the ball of sheets close to him. He's been trying to put off the inevitable, but not sleeping is something that he just can't do. He wishes that he actually had some batteries for his flashlight so he isn't in pure darkness is his final thought before he drifts off to an uneasy sleep.

 

Sans is with his brother and a few of his friends in Grillby's, they're sitting around a table chatting happily while Sans leans back and takes a drink from his ketchup bottle. The soft talk of the bar and the happy tunes from the jukebox relaxes Sans. This is his getaway place, him and his buddies crowded into the homely atmosphere of the bar. He orders another round of burgers for his friends and the quiet bartender disappears into the back to make the food.

The air gets cooler without Grillby behind the bar and the jukebox starts acting up, skipping a few lines here and there and pausing until it stops playing anything. For a moment it just emits static until an unfamiliar voice crackles through the speakers.

"Attention, you have all been nominated for a government experiment. Congratulations. Please make your way towards the front door in a single file line." All the monsters look at each other with unease and they stand up, walking to the door. When the first monster touches the door knob, it opens and reveals a small child with a grim frown and dead eyes.

"First, I must thank you for participating in this experiment. Second, I want to explain the rules of this experiment to all of you." Sans looks around and sees that they have all been teleported to a small room made out of concrete. He sees Papyrus staring down at him with terror and he grabs his brother's hand.

"It'll be okay, Papyrus." Papyrus says nothing but looks back at the foreboding human that stands in front of them.

"- and lastly, don't forget to have fun." They end the speech with a thin smile and they exit through the door, leaving the monsters by themselves.

"What is this?"

"Honey, don't cry. Please."

"Let us out! You can't do this!" The giant doors behind them open and they turn and see an arena filled with a thick layer of dust. A woman in the front crumples to her knees and lets out a howl of fear. A few of the braver monsters step into the soot and walk around, there's no sound as the other monsters watch the few walk around.

"Please exit the room or face retribution." More monsters shuffle into the arena. Sans and Papyrus slowly step out and they grip each others' hands tightly. The woman is still on her knees and stares back at the monsters with blank eyes, she's paralyzed with fear and cannot move. A small child, Sans assumes is her daughter, tries to get her to move. She ignores the child's feeble attempt and scurries to the corner of the room with the child clutched tightly to her chest.

"You have ten seconds to exit the room." The monsters stand in fear as they watch the child squirm in the woman's arms as the voice counts down towards one. "Three. Two. One." Two loud shots fill the silent arena and they watch on as the mother and child disperse into dust. Shrieking echos off the arena walls and monsters run in every direction, trying to get away from the scene. Sans' hand slips from Papyrus and he loses his brother in the ocean of hysterical monsters.

"Papyrus!" His voice is overwhelmed by the screams of the others and he is carried further into the arena.

"Papyrus! Where are you?!" More shots ring out and one by one, he sees his friends turn into dust. In every direction monsters are being shot. Slowly the screams grow more quiet. Sans sees Papyrus in the opposite side of the arena and he runs to him.

"Papyrus!" His brother turns and in his arms is the dusty chest piece of Undyne's armor, his tears fall onto the armor with soft plinks. Sans skids to a stop and wraps his arms around his wailing brother.

"She, she shielded me from getting shot Sans." Sans doesn't know what to say and instead he hugs his brother tighter, not wanting to let go. He hears the clank of the discarded armor and he looks up at his brother.

"P-Papyrus?" His brother looks down, his flowing tears hit Sans on his face.

"Brother. . ." His voice trails off and he starts to shimmer. A lump fills Sans and he shakes his head vigorously.

"No, no, no, no! Don't you do this to me, Papyrus! Don't die on me, you can't!" He grabs Papyrus by the shoulders, "Where did you get hit?! I can heal it! Papyrus, please show me!" Papyrus says nothing as he disappears into a pile of dust, nothing left but his clothing. Sans holds his brother's scarf in his trembling hands. There's no more screams and all that's left is Sans covered in the dust of his brother.

"Such a pity." He looks up and sees the human child staring down at him with contempt, "You're so worthless. Can't even protect your own little brother. How does it feel to be so pathetic? Ha, if you were MY brother, I'd hate to even have you around. You're just so useless and weak. What ever would your father say? Oh, why don't we ask him?" 

A smile spreads across their gaunt face as they start to morph into his late father. He watches in horror as the figure pulsates darkness, a long spindly hand reaches for him. The cold and thin fingers wrap around his skeletal neck and his father lifts his in the air bringing him close to his face. A sinister glow emits from his split eye sockets and his toothless smile grows wider as a callous voice creeps into his skull.

"You shouldn't even be here. I should have chose your brother instead of you. You negligent fool. How could I have ever placed my trust in you? After all that I have done for you, and this is how you repay me? By letting your only other kin perish? You are a pathetic excuse for my son." Sans tries to squirm away but the hand tightens until he can feel the ligaments in his neck straining under the pressure. Sans tries to summon his powers but his attempt is weak and his father chuckles, the lights in his eyes dim until Sans is staring into an abyss of despise.

"Now die." His father's grip tightens and Sans hears a crack and his vision turns black as the last thing he hears is the deranged laughter of his father.

 

Sans bolts up and brings his hands to his neck. Nothing is broken and he lets out a sigh of relief. The soft light of the moon filters in through his window and and he slowly gets up, ignoring the pops and groans from his bones. Sans gets up and trips over a book that's littering his floor, with a soft curse, he kicks the book to the side and walks to his door. He has to get out of the house and get some fresh air, he doesn't want to be around anyone or even see anyone. The door complains with a loud squeak and he makes a note to have the hinges get oiled someday.

He creeps down the stairs and sees the child and his brother sleeping soundly. He smiles sadly as he stares at his brother, he's glad that that was only a dream; he can't think of what he would do without his brother.

The front door opens quietly and Sans slips out without another glance to either sleeping forms. He doesn't know where he'll go, all he knows is that he has to get away for a while. He needs time to think and stuff this nightmare away forever. It's no use in telling Papyrus this dream, like usual, he would try to understand but he never does. They never do.

Papyrus raises at exactly six thirty and he sees the human still sleeping, a serene smile plays across their face and he feels happy, he doesn't think that he's ever seen such a pure smile before. He gets up and decides that he should check on his brother, over the past few months it's became a habit to check on Sans every morning to make sure that he's still doing well.

He opens Sans' room slowly and peeks his head in, a musty smell wafts around Papyrus and he narrows his eyes; he's going to have to wash Sans' clothing today and open his window because this smell is starting to get ridiculous. He honestly doesn't know how Sans can put up with this smell.

His eyes wander to the bed and he doesn't see his brother. The smile from Papyrus' face falls flat and he takes a couple of steps into the small room, a few floorboards creak. His eyes scan the room and he sees a book left open, Papyrus guesses that it never really occurred to him that his brother took the time to read anything besides when he read Papyrus to sleep. He bends down and picks up the slightly beat-up book and sees that most of the lined paper is blank. It's at this point he realizes what he's holding in his hands is his brother's journal. Not wanting to invade Sans' privacy he goes to set it back down when he thinks that maybe the journal will have a clue to where Sans has gone. Papyrus walks over to Sans' bed and sits down and opens the journal to page one.

4-13

Sometimes, I feel like I just can't take it anymore. I know that everyone hates me and some of them only talk to me out of pity. I despise that the most, I don't need anyone's pity, let alone fake friendships.

Sometimes I wish people could understand. I know that they try, perhaps there isn't anything actually wrong. Heh, and pigs fly. I honestly wish I could change it. I really wish I could. I feel hopeless. I'm never going to get anywhere in life. Look at me, I'm just a worthless piece of shit.

 

A frown sets in and Papyrus looks at the next page, he never realized that Sans ever had these thoughts.

4-30

It's strange seeing how much I changed. Granted, I still hate myself and probably always will hate myself. However, I used to at least have some sort of hope. Thinking that there'd be a light at the end of this extremely long tunnel. There's not, if anything, the dark is darker. There's no happiness. No hope. No justice. Talking gets you nowhere. Just gotta hold your tongue and close your eyes because this game called life has no prize. Just gotta hold tight and carry on. Silence is the only ticket out.

 

Why hadn't his brother ever come to him about these thoughts? Surely Sans knows that he would have done anything in his power to help Sans not feel like this. He knew that Sans was having some trouble dealing with stuff, but Papyrus never would have thought that it was this bad for him. Papyrus flips through the next few pages with growing concern.

6-12

Let me rest. I'm so tired.

8-4

I feel so god dammed worthless. I'm so depressed. I shouldn't be. My life is actually not that bad right now but that doesn't stop the thoughts. I know people talk behind my back. I know they do. I just don't know what to do anymore, I used to be so fucking sure of myself and of my future, but, all of that is gone now and I just want to crawl away somewhere and pretend that I don't exist.

If this is a dream, please, somebody wake me up.

12-2

It's back. I thought that it was gone for good. I thought wrong. The numbness is back. I can feel it in my head. Why did it come back? What have I done to suffer this. . . this hole in my head?

 

Papyrus closes the journal after reading the last entry and now more than ever he knows that he has to find Sans before something bad happens to his brother. He supposes that Grillby's would be the best place to start searching for him.

He flies out the door and when he gets to the stairs, he freezes. The sofa where the human is supposed to be sleeping, is now vacant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm sorry that this took longer to publish. I was called into work on Sunday and on Monday I had a date and yesterday. . . I kinda slept for 16 hours. I think I might be dying ahaha. Er hem, anyway. So here's chapter three! This one is pretty dark and not very relevant to Frisk but this is a chapter that I personally think is pretty important because not everything is about shits and giggles. Especially when it comes to writing about a character that's as complex as Sans. I wanted to work with how it's like dealing with depression and how it can ,overall, make someone just feel so helpless in situations. Even if this is just a fanfic, maybe it can shed some light to people so they can maybe get a better understanding that it's not at all about moping and feeling sorry for yourself. Depression in itself is so hugely complex and everyone who has it experiences it differently. Okay, I'm going to stop before I end up writing a whole essay about it.


	4. The Confession of a Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus and Frisk go out and search for Sans, who in the middle of the night left to escape his nightmares.

Flowey bobs on his stem thoughtfully as he watches the stout skeleton creep out of his house. He smiles to himself, he was not expecting for Sans to start breaking this early in this timeline, but, the sooner the better. He rubs a leaf under one of his lower petals and debates if he wants to end him this early. Certainly, even if the smiley trashbag is rattled, he can still spell out a bad time. After all, cornered animals deliver the worst bites. It's best to follow him for now and not to alert him of Flowey's presence just yet. He knows how much of a pain this skeleton can be and he doesn't even want to hear his absurdly stupid voice, let alone fight the bastard.

 

Sans thrusts his hands into his pockets and fumbles for an old pack of cigarettes. He knows that he doesn't posses any sort of lungs to breathe in the smoke, but he likes the feeling of the smoke swirling around his bones and filling the crevices in his skull. Plus, he likes to think it makes him look kind of cool, who doesn't find a skeleton leaking smoke cool? Probably Papyrus. What's the worst smoking can do to him? Kill him? He's already a skeleton. He's never really understood his brother's argument but he guesses the smell can be a bit overbearing.

He chews on the butt of the cigarette slightly and gets lost in his own thoughts until he nearly runs into a small monster. With a quick sidestep and a huff of exasperation he sees it's that little monster kid that's always at Undyne's heels.

"Hey, kid. What's with the hold up?" The small yellow monster looks at him with large eyes and a goofy buck toothed smile.

"Oh, hi! I was hoping that maybe I could see the stars this morning! I heard some other kids talking about it and I wanted to see them for myself!"

"Heh, well, good luck kid. Maybe one day." He walks away from the kid and takes another drag from his cigarette, how he wishes that he could be naive like that kid. He tries to recall a time where he was genuinely happy. It seems so long ago, he can't even really remember when he didn't have a killer migraine.

He reaches his favorite hiding spot, a large crevice in one of the walls in Waterfall. He crushes the cigarette with the heel of his sneaker and only then, does he allow himself to shed a few tears. He watches his tears fall onto the cave floor with a soft plink. He honestly wishes that he could get himself together but he's not even sure if he can at this point. He doesn't know if he can make the nightmares or even the pain go away. He just wants it to end.

 

"Human! Human, where are you?" Papyrus searches the living room and comes up with nothing. How could something this disastrous happen on his watch? He can kiss his career in the Royal Guard good bye now. If he had skin, Undyne would surely skin him alive for this. He hears a glass breaking in the kitchen and he strides over and peeks inside.

Frisk is staring down at the glass, when they look up, they see a gangling skeleton smiling down at them. They let out a cry of surprise and they scamper away from the skeleton that's walking towards them. They can hear the rattle of his bones and the grinding from his joints rubbing together.

"Human, there is no need to cry. For it is just I, The Great Papyrus, here to make the best accommodations for you while you are here under my house. Well, rather Sans' house but we will not speak of that! For you are awake and you must be hungry! Let me prepare something so incredulously delicious, it will make you speechless for years to come! This will be the greatest meal of your short life! For I, Papyrus, will make you my best spaghetti! Ever!"

"Where am I?" A small frown sets in on Papyrus' face before he quickly replaces it with his signature smile. How can this small human not remember how they got here? If they can't remember that, are they unable to help Sans?

"Do you not remember?" Frisk shakes their head, the last thing that they remember is being in Toriel's home. There was a brief burst of pain that they felt and then they woke up here, much to their surprise. If Frisk really concentrates, they kind of remember some things but their memory is so spotty and it's like everything was so muffled when everything transpired. Honestly, it gives Frisk a headache and they'd rather ask a helpful skeleton what happened than to wade through their strange and muddled memories.

Papyrus strokes his chin thoughtfully and slightly tilts his head to the left, "Hmm, well, you were found in the snow and we took you back here and nursed you back to health! For a bit, I was quite worried that you'd never wake up! You were sleeping for so long." Papyrus trails off, he was so sure of himself when the human was sleeping but now that they're awake, he's nervous to talk to them. He skirts around the broken glass and picks up a broom and sweeps up the glass.

"May I ask though, why were you in here throwing my fine dining ware around all willy-nilly?" Frisk looks up at the sink that towers above them sheepishly.

"I was thirsty and I tried to get a glass of water." Papyrus gets out a plastic cup and fills it up, he hands it to the small human with a gentle smile.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I hope this will be good! Already I am an unfitting host! This is truly a tragedy!" Frisk gulps down the water quickly and holds it up to Papyrus, with a chuckle, he fills the cup once more and hands it back to Frisk.

"Drink this more slowly, you'll get a tummy ache with all the water you're drinking and that's no fun! Well, not that I really know because strictly speaking, I don't exactly need to drink water. It'll just make a mess everywhere! Well, now that I think about it, I don't even really need to eat! No! I must eat! If not, who can enjoy all of this scrumptious spaghetti? You know what human? I will drink some water with you!" He fills a glass for himself and drinks the water. Immediately, the water trickles down his ribs and forms a puddle around his feet. Frisk lets out a small giggle and they look up at the skeleton that's still drinking happily from his water glass.

He's seen that look before that on Sans and he knows that the best way to make someone feel better is to have laughter. Even if it means making a mess on his spotless kitchen floor, or even having to suffer the pain of telling some really terrible puns.

Frisk and Papyrus sit next to each other watching television, after eating a particularly very filling meal, Frisk has once again fallen asleep. Their head rests lightly on Papyrus' lap and he gazes softly at Frisk, whatever kind of human he was expecting to eventually meet; Frisk certainly does not fit that criteria. They're so small and fragile and it truly boggles Papyrus' mind on how they even survived this long in Underground.

He places a gloved hand on top of their hair and a small smile spreads across Frisk's face. Papyrus has to look away, how can he ever give such an innocent and precious soul to Undyne? Even if he could convince her to not kill Frisk on the spot, they would still be taken to Asgore where they'll ultimately meet their fate anyway.

A brotherly sense of protection fills his empty chest cavity. He's always wanted a little sibling and who's better to fit his abnormally high standards than this sweet child sleeping on his lap? A creeping thought pops up and his smile falters, will he be able to convince Sans to let Frisk stay? He was watching his elder brother's attitude towards Frisk and he seemed rather off-putting to them while they were sleeping. That's rather odd though, Sans is normally very good with children and he barely even lifted a finger to help this poor soul even while Papyrus surely thought they were dying on his favorite sofa.

"Mom." A soft whisper brings Papyrus out of his thoughts and he sees their smile is replaced with a frown and their fists are balled up. He runs his hand through their hair, calming them instantly and he goes back to his thoughts. He's decided that he's going to protect Frisk no matter what, he can't let them get hurt.

Even if they are a human because he's always believed in helping the poor and protecting the weak. That's why he wants to join the Royal Guard, if he can't help a sick child then he surely doesn't deserve to be in the Royal Guard. He must stand up to what he believes in, even if some other monsters might view it as traitorous, this is the right thing to do.

 

Frisk awakes to find a warm woolen blanket draped over them and they sit up sleepily.

"Ah! You're awake! How did you sleep? I hope that my sofa was comfortable enough for you!" They turn towards the voice and see Papyrus sitting at the table reading a newspaper. They study the lanky skeleton further and see that he's wearing reading glasses. Frisk gets up slowly and cocks their head at Papyrus, who in turns cocks his head with a raised eyebrow.

"Is there something on my face, human?" Frisk points to their face and nods.

"There's nothing on your face, except for skin. Wait. Are you trying to tell me that I don't have skin? Human, I am already aware of this." They shake their head, "No, why are you wearing glasses? How are they staying up?" Papyrus lets out a jolly laugh and he sets down the newspaper.

"Well, as sad as I am to admit my few flaws, lacking eyeballs is one of them. Probably my only flaw actually; how can I ever dream of having handsome bishounen eyes if I don't even have eyes? Naturally, my sight isn't exactly the best, thankfully, I only require these when I'm reading. It's hard to concentrate on such small text. How I keep them on my face is rather simple, I use tape! My brother has to use glasses too." He finishes the sentence rather softly and has an odd look on his face, like he just ate something sour. How could he forget his brother? He was so wrapped up taking care of Frisk, Sans completely fled his mind!

He knows that it's only been a few hours but with his brother's failing health, he shouldn't be left alone for too long. Especially after Papyrus read those entries from Sans' journal.

"Human, are you feeling well enough to go on an adventure?" He can't leave Frisk here alone, what if Undyne shows up, wanting to spare or do one of their top secret training sessions? Frisk nods their head vigorously and he jumps to his feet with a giant smile. He must pretend to be normal for Frisk, he doesn't want them to know how urgent it is to find his dear brother.

"Good! First, we must find you a costume!"

"Why do I need a costume?"

"Think of it as one of your human television shows where they play as detective! We're going on a top secret mission to find my brother!" He lets out an internal sigh of relief and he's glad that he's a quick thinker.

After digging through some old clothing that him and his brother would wear to dress up parties, they finally found one of Papyrus' old costume that he hasn't worn since he was a baby skeleton. The onesie fit perfectly on Frisk. The once bright yellow has now faded a bit but the tail is torn and is in need of repairs. Papyrus was never good at tailoring and he wishes that Sans was here to fix the tail, however if Sans was here; Papyrus and Frisk wouldn't have to go on this perhaps dangerous mission to find him. After two temper tantrums on both sides and some bandaged fingers later, they run out from the front door with grins on their faces. Papyrus can't remember the last time he had so much fun and Frisk is just happy to get out of the house, not that they didn't like it but they've been yearning fresh air.

The frigid wind hits them and Frisk looks around, their frosty breath floating around their head. They can't remember ever being in a place so beautiful. The snowflakes here are giant and fluffy, they stick out their tongue and catch a snowflake. Papyrus watches them with what may seems like slight jealousy.

"Now, if I know my brother at all, I say we should go to Grillby's first! He's probably at his usual seat with his face in the food, sleeping." At least, that's what Papyrus hopes. He doesn't know what he would do without his brother. After being raised by him, he's not only his brother but his absolute best friend in the world. A world without Sans is like a world without spaghetti.

 

"Well, apparently I don't know my brother at all! Why wasn't he at Grillby's?! He's always there when he's not sleeping on the job!" Panic begins to grow within him, Grillby said that he hasn't seen Sans since yesterday. That's something that's so incredibly rare that even all the locals that hang around Grillby's is worried about Sans.

"There's no where else?"

"Not that I can think of. I think we should head back to my house so we can make a plan." Frisk nods and follows Papyrus back to his house, stepping in his foot prints so they don't sink any lower into the snow. When they finally reach the Skeleton brothers' home, they see Sans sitting outside.

"Sans?! Where on earth were you? You had me worried sick! We went all over the place looking for you!" Papyrus scoops up his short brother in a bear hug, refusing to let go. Sans awkwardly pats Papyrus' back and gives a soft chuckle.

"I was locked out."

"Why aren't you wearing your jacket? You're going to catch a cold or something!"

"Yeah, I forgot it. Heh, it sure does chill you to the bone out here." Papyrus sets down Sans with and narrows his eyes at him.

"I'm going to ignore that."

"Aw, bro, come on."

"Sans, why do you smell? Have you been smoking?" Sans shrugs and looks up at the house.

"Don't be such a drag." Papyrus says nothing and takes out his key to unlock the door. Sans turns around and looks at Frisk briefly.

"Oh, nice to see that you're among the living again." He gives Frisk a lazy smile before strolling into the open door. Frisk stares after him, this is the second skeleton that they've met but they still haven't seen the one that Flowey was warning them about. Frisk follows them back into the house and shuts the door behind them.

 

Papyrus knocks on Sans' door lightly before coming in. He stares pensively at his elder brother who is sprawled on his worn down bed, looking up at the ceiling, "Sans, we need to talk." Papyrus sits down next to Sans, his brother rolls his head towards Papyrus and lets out a sigh.

"Aww, here it comes."

"Sans, I'm worried for you." Sans sits up and stretches, his spine pops as he yawns idly.

"Bro, you don't have to worry about me. I'm A-okay. I just had to get some of that fresh air, good for the lungs."

"We don't have lungs."

"Shit, man, you caught me. I guess we don't have lungs." Papyrus doesn't crack a smile and Sans looks away from his brother. Despite being mistaken for being naive, Papyrus has a pretty good knack of knowing when someone is bull shitting him. This applies especially for Sans.

"What's wrong? You know that you can tell me anything, right?"

"Paps, I told you, there's nothing wrong." Papyrus narrows his eyes and his frown sets in deeper.

"If there's nothing wrong, then look me in the eye sockets and tell me that there is indeed nothing wrong. I really worry about you and I want to help in anyway I can." Sans grows quiet refusing to look at his brother, he opts to stare down at the floor boards of his room.

"Papyrus, there's nothing that you can do to help."

"You don't know that. I just want you to listen to me for once, Sans. I'm here for you-" Sans whips his head up and glares at Papyrus.

"No, you listen to me. This has nothing to do with you."

"I don't care if this has anything to do with me. You're obviously hurt and I want to help you not be like this anymore."

"You think there's something wrong with me? Like what, like I'm sick?" Sans' voice turns icy. Papyrus has never seen his brother angry before. He's always just his couch potato brother who has an endless supply of patience. This side of him, he's never seen before.

"No, that's not what I meant and you know it." Sans grits his teeth together and massages his temples.

"You want to know what's wrong with me? Well, I've tried. Papyrus. I've tried so fucking hard and you know what? Every time I try, I get knocked down. You don't have to live with my thoughts, you don't have to personally deal with the consequences of my destructive habits. Heh, even though you say you want to help, you just see what you want to see and turn a blind eye to the rest.

You think I enjoy being who I am? Do you think that I get up every afternoon excited for the new day? 'Oh boy! I'm so fucking excited that it's a new day! Because I just fucking love living so damned much!' No! I lay in bed and I hate myself because I'm such a waste of life." Papyrus moves closer to Sans and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Sans." Sans angrily shakes off his hand and leers at his brother, his normally amiable eyes have lost all light and Papyrus can feel the two dark and empty eye sockets boring down into his very being.

"No, I want you to shut up for just one second. You wanted to know what is wrong with me, well I'm telling you so shut up. Everyone expects me to be this perfect ideal. I'm not! I don't live up to their expectations. It's not because I don't want to, because I do and I try. I honestly do but it's never enough.

It's so hard talking to you about this. I'm scared. Okay? I'm scared to tell you these things because I don't want to lose you. So, to protect myself, I keep you in the dark. Call me selfish. I don't care." Sans pauses for a moment, gathering himself. Papyrus feels a tightness in his chest, how could he not see this before?

"Sans, you're my brother and my best friend. You know that I would never leave." A wide smile takes over Sans' face and his eyes seem to grow darker. Papyrus realizes at this point that he's never felt so judged nor scared this much in his life before.

"You don't think that you'll leave? Heh, you really want to know what haunts me? Do you know how it feels to posses no emotions? The only real thing I ever feel is anger. Besides that, there's nothing. This whole thing is just an act. There's nothing more that I would like to do than to show my true side, but, I don't think you would like that very well. After all, it would be years of pent up rage. And the nightmares, the nightmares that I have every night. Things that seem so real and you don't even really know what's a dream or what's real anymore." Sans goes quiet once more and Papyrus dares not say anything. Even after a very long five minutes the two brothers sit in silence before Sans begins to laugh. Papyrus does nothing but just stares sadly at his brother. How could he let himself fail his brother this much?

Sans finally meets Papyrus' stare and he sees that Sans has the light back in his eye sockets and that they're filled with cyan colored tears. When Sans begins to speak again, his voice cracks and he begins to cry.

"I'm sorry that you're stuck with a loser like me. I'm sorry that I'm not what you want me to be, I'll always just be lazy and good for nothing Sans. I'm just a big fuck up. I'm sorry, okay? You deserve someone way better than me." Papyrus wraps Sans into a hug and begins to cry himself.

"Sans, look at me," Sans hesitantly meets Papyrus' stare, "You are my brother. I will always be there to help you no matter what and you know that. If it's space that you require, then I will give you all the space in the world. You know that I would never, ever leave. I promise that I will always be the best brother I can be for you." Papyrus means to say more but he chokes up and it's like they're both baby bones again, both blubbering into each others' arms. Neither really knowing what caused this onslaught of events but they know that they have at least each other.

 

From the other side of the door, Frisk leans against the wall with a cruel smile. They haven't had this much fun in quite a while and they think to themselves that they'll continue to play this game. They'll let the other voice in their head think that they won the battle and when they least expect it, that is when Chara will strike down everyone that Frisk loves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I know I'm a day late but I was really into a game that I was playing and lost track of time. But at least it's up now! I stayed up late just for you guys! Um, I just wanted this chapter to be just kind of fluffy with Papyrus and Frisk running around Snowdin but then I thought to myself, I have to bring some sort of drama up to the plate. So, emotionally drained Sans that's tired of everyone's shit! Yeah, he seems to be too fragile but he's just so tired. Poor thing. Is family drama over for them? Nope. Life surely isn't that kind to them in this timeline.  
> Oh, and if you were wondering about the onsie that Frisk was wearing, it was a Pikachu onesie. See you guys in the next chapter!


	5. The Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and Sans decide to have a heart to heart conversation. With this conversation leaves more unanswered questions than before. It's now up to Sans to piece the puzzle together before it's too late.

The television plays softly in the background as Papyrus glares between Sans and Frisk with Frisk sitting on his left and Sans directly at the other end of the table, Sans challenged him to a game of Go Fish after Papyrus gloated about how he was naturally the best at any sort of card game. So far though, Frisk has been giving him a run for his money and perhaps it's a good thing that they're not playing poker. With Frisk's top notch poker face, they could go against the best of the gamblers in Underground with an unnatural ease.

"You, uh, got any, hmmm, let's see. . ." Sans stares down at his cards as Papyrus taps the wooden table with impatience.

"Sans, for pity's sake!" Sans peers at his younger brother from over his cards and he tuts at him.

"Chill, bro. I'm just exploring my options. Let me think." Papyrus lets out a huff while Sans turns his attention back to the four cards in his left hand, he glances back up and eyes Frisk with precaution.

"Alright, kid, do you have. . . any aces?" For a moment, Frisk and Sans stare down each other and even with the television playing, there's an overbearing silence and Papyrus lets out a cough.

"Go fish." Sans mumbles to himself before grabbing the last card from the middle. If Papyrus wasn't as nearly as competitive as he is, he probably would have felt sorry for his brother, whom, since playing hasn't even gotten a single trick yet. All towards this moment, he's watched Sans slowly slump into his chair with the occasional grumble. His brother may be good at quite a few things but it seems that Go Fish is not one of them.

Frisk directs their attention to Papyrus with the smallest hint of a smile playing across their pale lips. Papyrus tightens his grip on his cards and hopes they're not going to ask him for any kings. He wants to try to at least even the score. He's so close to getting that last king and he hopes that Sans has that last king and not this pesky human.

"Do you have any fives?" Papyrus reluctantly hands over a five and with deft hands, Frisk grabs the five. Papyrus notes that they're still missing one more so Sans must have the other one. Frisk turns their attention to Sans, who's so low in his chair that Papyrus can only see his seemingly judging and glowing eye sockets.

"Sans? Do you have my five?" Sans wipes away the magical sweat at his forehead and with a sigh of defeat, he gives it to Frisk. They smile and put the new trick of fives together in a neat pile with the rest of their cards. Turning their attention back to Papyrus they tap their chin thoughtfully. Papyrus ignores their stare and concentrates on his cards. All that he's got left is three aces, three kings and a four.

"What about a queen?" Papyrus lets out a hearty laugh and with a shake of his head, he informs Frisk that he does not possess a queen.

"Alright, human. Do you have any kings?" It's their turn to shake their head and he can see Sans perk up from his seat. With a sinking feeling, he knows what the last of his brother's cards are. Sans seems like he won't walk away empty handed this turn.

"Okay, Paps, cough up the kings." Papyrus rolls his eyes and hands his three cards to Sans' awaiting hand. He chuckles to himself and asks Papyrus for the aces and once more, Papyrus obliges. With two sets of tricks and one remaining card, Sans turns to Frisk and smiles.

"Do you have any queens?" They let out a pout and hand over three cards of their own to Sans.

"Yoink." Sans takes the cards and slams them down with his last card on top, a queen. "Welp, that was really fun and all but I think I'm done playing. See ya nerds later, I'm going to Grillby's. Want anything?"

"Yes, a better hand would be nice."

"Awww, Paps, you're perfect the way you are."

"No! Not my actual hands, Sans! You know what I meant!"

"Heh, sure. What about you, kiddo? You gotta be wanting something other than spaghetti, right?"

"Sans, I will have you know that they enjoy my spaghetti. Unlike other people in this house." Sans looks over his shoulder at Papyrus with an innocent look.

"What do you mean?"

"Ohhh, don't you pretend that I don't know that you feed that blasted dog that likes to hide in my sink! You're encouraging his poor behavior!"

"It's kinda rude not to feed him. I mean, he kinda lives there now."

"Then why don't you feed your pet rock? Twice a day I must feed your rock!" Sans points at his brother and shakes his head at him.

"Hey, you leave Dwayne out of this." Frisk perks up, and looks over at Sans.

"Sans, can I go to Grillby's too? Please?" Sans strokes his mandible thoughtfully.

"I dunno kid, don't you wanna stay here?" Although Frisk has been living with the Skeleton brothers for the past few months, Sans still can't shake the uneasy feeling that something bad is going to happen and he knows that this kid is the source of bad news. Ever since they've been living with them, his nightmares have only gotten worse. Sans tries his best to keep his distance from Frisk, however, they don't seem to notice that he continuously tries to give them the cold shoulder. Papyrus on the other hand noticed right away and reminded Sans that Frisk is an honorary guest of their home and they should be treated as such.

Frisk stands up and jumps up and down in their chair and shake their head. Of course there would be no shaking this kid, once Frisk has their mind set on something they go for it. Sans is about to tell them to bug off when he catches Papyrus' steely glare. Not only does Sans have to live with his absurdly stubborn brother but now it seems that Papyrus adopted this young child as their younger sibling. Two stubborn siblings. Just what Sans wanted.

"Aiight kid, throw on your costume. You know the drill." Frisk leaps from the chair and dashes up the stairs to Papyrus' room. Papyrus has been kind enough to let them live in his room, every night it's a hassle to try to get both of them to stop chatting and tucked into bed so he can read both of them a bedtime story. Sans doesn't like the idea of Frisk being so close to the last member of his family but every time he tries to bring it up to Papyrus he just gets another lecture on how he should stop being such a "Downer Debbie".

"While you are at Grillby's please keep an eye on Frisk! They're so sick, it makes me nervous when I'm not around them." So Papyrus has noticed it too. Sans has known since the encounter with Frisk that they are dying. How soon they'll die is unknown but their cold skin and those strange sores all over their body puts Sans on edge even more.

"Bro, come on. You know I wouldn't let the kid get hurt." Papyrus studies his brother for a solemn moment. Letting out a sigh, he pushes away from the chair and stands up. He strides over to where his brother is and gives him a hug.

"I know things are not going very well for you and I'm trying but you have to try with Frisk. Please. You two have more in common than you think. I think that you two could be pretty good buddies if you would just let them." It's Sans' turn to sigh and he buries his head into the crook of his younger brother's elbow.

"Papyrus. I really wish it was that easy but there's just something wrong." Papyrus says nothing as he turns away and begins to pick up the discarded cards on the table. They both hear a quiet humming and Sans scratches the back of his cranium.

Frisk finally runs back down the stairs in the same onsie that they adorned the first time they left the house. They peer up at Sans and gives him a sweet smile to which he replies with his own smile that may seem less genuine and more strained.

"All ready, kiddo?" they nod "Sweet, come on, I know a shortcut." With a sly wink, he reaches his hand out to them. They grasp it and it takes all of Sans' will to not shiver at their frigid hands.

"Later Paps." He waves at his brother with his other hand and Frisk mimics him. Papyrus smiles at both of them before a soft blue light envelops both Frisk and Sans. Within the second, they're standing outside of Grillby's with a Frisk gasping for air.

"Aw man, I forgot that I've never used a shortcut with you. Sorry kid." When they catch their breath, they stare up at Sans with complete awe and Sans begins to worry that if their eyes open any further, their eyes will pop out of their sockets.

"That was so cool!"

"Heh, I suppose it was." He forgot how it feels to have someone amazed by his little trick, Papyrus just calls it a common annoyance and the locals at this point are used to most of the tricks up Sans' sleeve. He holds open the door for Frisk and they bound in.

"Sans! Frisk! Good to see you two again!" Frisk waves excitedly at the pub patrons and they make their way to their usual seat.

"Sup everyone?" Not exactly expecting a reply but it's always nice to stay friendly with the residents of Snowdin. A few smile at the two as they plop down on their seats and Sans raises his hand for the menus.

"Okay, Frisk, whatcha want to eat today?" They peruse the menu and they tap on the hamburger. Sans nods and flags down Grillby.

"A hamburger for my little sibling and the usual for me." Grillby takes the menus and disappears into the kitchen. One of the regulars peers around Sans and studies Frisk.

"Ya know, I still don't see how they're related to you. I mean, they don't exactly look like a skeleton." Sans pulls Frisk close to him, though he's not the biggest fan of Frisk, he's not going to let the other monsters find out that Frisk is actually a human.

"Aw, man, do we really have to go over this again?"

"No, no. I just still don't see the resemblance."

"Don't let Papyrus hear that, he'd have a cow." Grillby reappears and sets down a plate in front of Frisk and a slender glass in front of Sans.

 

"Hey, can I ask you something?" Sans and Frisk are sitting in the middle of the forest on a fallen tree. Frisk looks up at Sans and nods. Since having perhaps a few too many drinks at Grillby's, Sans' courage seems to be higher and he decides that it's finally time to get the answers to the questions that has been nagging at the back of his mind for months.

"Why would you leave the topside? Paps and I have seen a lot of human movies and it seems so much better up there than down here. Why would you want to leave somewhere, where you could see the sun or the stars? All around us down here is just. . . darkness." Frisk fidgets under Sans' gaze and they play with the seam of their onsie.

"I don't remember." Their reply is so quiet that Sans barely registers that they've even really said anything, "Anytime I try to remember anything, I get a headache. The earliest memory I have is waking up down here and finding mom."

". . . Mom?" This was not the reply that Sans was expecting to hear. As far as he knows, Frisk is the only human down here. He's certainly hasn't seen an adult human down here and that's something that he's sure he would know about.

"Well, she's not my real mom. But I wish she was! I don't remember anyone else, if I had a mom or a dad up there, I can't remember."

"If you have a mom down here, why are you living with us?"

"I. . . don't remember." Sans lets out a puff of frustration and starts patting around his jacket for his cigarettes. Finding out about this kid is going to be more of a pain that he previously thought. Fumbling with the lid of the pack, he takes a cigarette and lights it.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Frisk buries their head in their hand and squeezes their eyes shut.

"Anytime I try to remember anything, it feels like it's going away from me."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, they're running away from me." Sans rubs his temporal bone with both hands as he holds his cigarette in between his mouth.

"What do you remember?" Frisk looks up, the cave ceiling is too high up and all that they see is the snow falling gently around them.

"Pain." Sans stops massaging his temples and pauses to look over at Frisk who has a grim frown on their grey tinted lips. Their hands unconsciously find their way to a sore on their thin neck and they start to pick at it. Sans watches in disgust as they peel the scab off and a black liquid starts to ooze out of the open wound. He takes their hand and pulls it away from the now open sore on their neck.

"Hey, uh, please don't do that." They say nothing but continue to stare up at the sky, "Um, what about your mom? Do you remember anything about her?"

"She loved me and she gave some of the best hugs. She's gone though."

"She's gone?" Frisk finally turns back to Sans and gives them a sad smile.

"She's dead." A cold feeling of raw fear starts to claw its way up towards Sans' sternum.

"I don't know how she died, but I know she is. She loved me, she wouldn't let me leave."

"Leave where?" Tears fill Frisk's eyes and their fists clench in a tight ball.

"Home. I wanted to go back to the surface and she wouldn't let me. That's all I remember. The next thing I remember is waking up at your house." His friend. The one who asked him to watch after a human that comes through that door, is that voice Frisk's mom. Is she truly dead? He hasn't had the chance to swing by with the whole looking after a human task.

"Your mom isn't from Snowdin, is she?"

"No, there was no snow. It was very warm where I lived. I don't like the warmth, it makes me sick." Sans can imagine why, if they're this sick in the frigid grasps of Snowdin, he'd hate to see how they fare where it's warm. They both stay quiet for a long time. Sans is too afraid to say anything that would confirm his fears and Frisk tries to concentrate on anything that could answer Sans' questions.

"Toriel." Sans directs his attention from the burning cigarette in his hand and to Frisk who's staring down at the ground.

"Excuse me?"

"H-her name was Toriel. We lived in somewhere called the Ruins." A numbness sets in Sans' bones and he can't feel the cold wind blow through him anymore. Toriel. He never knew her name but deep down, he knows that Toriel was the one that he talked to. The one that he may have even came to love.

"Gee, it's, uh, getting late. We should get you home." He reaches for Frisk's hand to take them back to their house when Frisk pulls away from him suddenly.

"I didn't want this to happen!" He withdraws his hand and stares at Frisk with confusion, "It's my fault that mom is dead!" They fall to the snow and sob incoherently.

"If I had just been good and didn't ask to leave, she could still have been alive! Why can't I remember what happened? What's wrong with me?" Sans gingerly pats their shoulder but says nothing. Sometimes the best comfort is nothing at all. After all, there would be no use in sugar coating something like this. Frisk continues to cry until the sky grows dark.

"Frisk, we should really get you back. It's not really safe to stay out this late." They say nothing but allow Sans to pick them up and in a blink of an eye, they're back at the Skeleton house. Sans sets down Frisk and wipes away the tears from their sallow face.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you think about Toriel. I have to go somewhere but you should go inside. I'm sure Papyrus wants to make sure that you're okay, after all, we've been gone for a while." Sans hugs the small child carefully, he knows that they're sensitive and doesn't want to hurt Frisk further.

He watches them shamble back into the house and hears Papyrus shouting with relief that they're back under the watchful eye of him. Sans' smile disappears and his eyes grow dark. He knows that he has to check the Ruin and see if what Frisk says is true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than normal but I promise you, the next chapter is going to be pretty long. Some crazy shit is about to happen. It's going to be great, I'm personally excited for how this is going to turn out. Anyway! I had to go online and play a round of Go Fish on some kid website because it's been at least 15 years since I've even thought about that card game and I got beaten so badly. I'll stick to RPG games.  
> Now it's time for some other stuff that I want to talk about. Frisk is in possession of Chara's dead body, as we all know, dead bodies decompose. The only reason it didn't decompose before Frisk possessed it was because of the pure determination of Chara's soul. However, an internal fight over control is pretty tiresome and it's wearing the body down. So, not only does Frisk have to fight against Chara but they're also fighting against some pretty nasty decomposing. The harder they fight, the more the body deteriorates. Some good stuff right there.  
> Alright, see you guys in the next chapter! Have a good day or night.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, it certainly has been a long time since I've been on here. I want to apologize, everything has just been pretty hectic and for the longest time it felt like I couldn't pull my life together. Anyway, I should have some more free time with the new job that I picked up so I'll be able to get back to writing. It does feel nice to be writing again. Well, I hope that you like this story, I'm pretty excited about this story and I have a lot of things in store for this one. I'm aiming to release a new chapter of this story every Monday. That should give me more than enough time to stop being so lazy and actually do something with my life. Well, until then, see you guys in the next chapter!


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